1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computerized pointing systems and in particular to systems that can control electronic devices by recognizing a user's hand gestures.
2. Description of the Related Art
The computer industry experiences currently a large demand for using touch screens in particular in tablet computers and smart phones. The touch screen is supposed to relieve the user dependence on the optic or mechanic mouse.
Although the computer mouse has proven very popular with desktop computers, it can be cumbersome to use with more mobile devices such as computer laptops, tablet computers and smartphones. Most laptops come equipped with a built-in pointing device such as a touch pad over which the user moves his finger, or a joystick-like small lever that the user moves in different directions. These pointing devices can be uncomfortable to use and may slow the user when working with the mobile computing devices or other electronic devices.
Hand gestures on the other hand are very natural to use. The new generation of smartphones, for examples, Apple's™ smartphones, have a very intuitive and fast interface using hand gestures captured on a touch screen.
While touch screens have become the trend and norm for both smartphones and tablet computers, touch screens remain both expensive and rarer for laptops, desktop computers and large screens such as television sets.
There is thus a need in the industry to provide touch screen capability for using a hand gesture interface for screens that are not touch screens.